Cold Tears
by Raine Leonhart
Summary: And when he raises his eyebrows, even though I can't see them 'cause I bury my face in his chest, I shrug, I squeeze him tighter, and I mutter, "You're warm." Yuffentine-ish. After the death of Aeris.


y hello thar! Thank you for having stumbled upon this short short shortshortshort story of mine! This is my first Yuffentine-ish thing (minus my never-posted failed beginning of another one I may work on) and most of it's in Yuffie's view, so yeah.

I do not own FF7. Or Vincent or Yuffie. Or ever will, which makes me like, super super sad.

* * *

Aeris. Aeris. _AerisAerisAeris._

That's all they can think about. Hell, she's all _I_ can think about.

_I'm so sorry, Aeris, so sorry, sosorryIcouldn'tsaveyousorrysorrysorry._

That damned Sephiroth! If only... If only we could have kicked his stupid dumb ass back then! If only we could have reversed time and-and-and saved Aeris before he got to her!

_"Come on, Vinnie! Come on, come on! Aeris is waiting for us! Cloud's already ahead, why are you being so slow?" Yuffie tugged on Vincent's claw. "Come on!"_

_"Vincent, Yuffie." Cloud spoke. "Stay here."_

_"Whaaat? Why?! I wanna talk to Aeris too!"_

_'Yuffie..." Vincent murmured. "I think it's best we stay here as Cloud said."_

_Yuffie pouted. "Fine! Don't blame me if you trip over and smack her with the back of your mega-giant sword! I wasn't up there with you to do so!"_

_She huffed and turned around. Cloud sighed, and headed towards the flower girl. When he was halfway up, she turned around with a heavy feeling in her stomach. "Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie, hey, Vinnie ." She whispered._

_Vincent only glanced at her and looked back at the ex-SOLDIER._

_She crossed her arms and looked into the calm water. "Fine. Ignore me like you always do." 'I bet Cloud IS gonna trip and smack her on the head. That chocobo-butt.'_

_When Vincent shifted and put his hand on his gun, Yuffie was alarmed. She looked back up to see Cloud, raising his sword above her head._

_Cloudnostopdon'tdoit. AERISstopitstopitdon'tkillher. DON'TYOUDAREDAMMIT._

_"CLOUD!" She shrieked. "What the _hell_ are you _doing_?!"_

_When he raised his sword up high, ready to strike, Yuffie made a dash for the steps. Vincent placed claw on her shoulder and stopped her when she took her first step. "He will not harm her, Yuffie." He spoke quietly._

_"How do you know that?!" She scowled. "He's got his giant freakin' sword right above her head!" She was silenced when he looked at her._

_She cringed and looked away when his sword came down in a swing._

_Clouddon'tdoitAerisdon'._

_When she heard nothing, she looked back up just as Cloud dropped his sword and stared at his hands. He looked at her, and she finally looked up from her prayer with a sad smile on her face._

_She'sfineshe'salright._

_Then came that shadow shadow shadow shadowofimpendingdoom with that cold gleam of that long icy blade..._

_And through her torso it went._

Aeris... Aeris...! Aeris!

_So gently she fell, so very gently even as that damned Sephiroth smirked and pulled out the blade._

_._

_Yuffie dropped to her knees when the lifeless body slumped forward and Cloud stepped forward to catch her._

_She stared at the crystal water lifelessly on her knees as Cloud put Aeris in the water. She watched, she waited for the bubbly woman to come out of the water, out from the Lifestream that decided to spare her._

_But it never happened._

_So she kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And not a tear left her eyes._

_But she never resurfaced, and no one paid attention to her just as she gave no acknowledgement of their presence beside her._

_And after hours of , she woke up in a dark room on a soft surface and sat up._

_Aeris._

_"You passed out and fell into the water," spoke a voice, low and quiet. "... You spent eight hours... kneeling by the water."_

_Yuffie's eyes widened. "Eight hours?! You gotta be kiddin' me Vince!"_

_Vincent stared at her. "Oh, right, right, everyone's probably asleep. Sorry 'bout that."_

_"The rest have planned on leaving in the morning. You should rest, you haven't been asleep for very long."_

_Yuffie sighed. "Y'know what? I won't be able to sleep." She hopped out of the bed and grabbed her weapon. "Why don't you rest, Vinnie? I'm just gonna go out for a walk to... to clear my mind."_

_Vincent sighed. "Do not come back injured." He said. '... Or like Aeris.'_

_She smiled weakly and waved to him before heading out the door._

_"Stupid-fucking-Sephiroth!" Yuffie hissed, lashing out at monster after monster, far away from the group's resting spot. "Can't-fucking-get-a-life-so he has-to-fucking-_kill_-_Aeris_!"_

_She stopped to catch her breath, and saw something small at the corner of her eye._

_A flower. Small, but surely growing._

Aeris.

_She went back after two hours and immediately collapsed on the bed she woke up on._

_At dawn, Cloud and the others woke up. They left Yuffie alone to let her get some more rest, and went to pay a visit to Aeris' grave one last time before they left._

_When they got there, they were surprised._

_On the top of the water, floating in the center, was a large, flat wooden board, neatly cut._

_On that board was soft dirt._

_And in that dirt was a single flower, soon to bloom and soon to spread its seeds._

_They were surprised, and happy, that it was there..._

_But who did it?_

_Vincent's lips twitched in a ghost of a smile._

"Man, I haven't seen so much snow in my life!" I shouted. Someone's gotta get everyone to stop copying Mr. Broody McBroodbrooder, right? So that person shall be ME!. "How can a person live in a place like this?"

No one responded. Guess I shoulda expected that, huh? Can't hurt to try and lighten everyone up though!

"Look, guys! A chocobo! Look, it's a chocobo! Heeeeere choco-choco!"

"Teef! Teef! Look, another one!"

"Hey, look! Look! There's a THIRD one!"

"A fourth one! Hey, hey, hey Aer-..." Oh wait... right... she's... she's not here with us...

"Will you shut the fuggin' hell up ya brat?!" Cid cursed. "You've been blabbin' all day long! Ya don't even CARE about Aeris right now DO you?! Bet you don't, ya damned brat!"

... Ouch. That hurt. Jerkofasmoker.

_"Cid."_ Tifa looked back and glared at him (her eyes are red, so so red from crying). Take that, asshole.

_Ihaven'tcriedWhyhaven'tIcried??_

"Y'know what, Cid?" I grit my teeth. I probably cared about her _just as much_, if not _more_ than everyone else here (besides Chocobo-butt... and Teefster). "_Screw you."_

Whoa. I never knew I could sound so icy in my life. Ever.

... Damn, it's cold. Maybe that's why I sounded so icy? It's real cold here. Why didn't I get something warmer? I mean, everyone's got giant poofy jackets with furred boots and furred gloves and scarves and stuff! Well, except Vincent. He wouldn't wear that stuff, he'd look really weird. Plus he's got all that mako and Galian and Hellmasker and that other one whatshisface I can't remember.

So look at me. I've got my regular old sneakers, plus long pants (which really aren't the best for snow) and a long sleeved shirt under a heavy sweater (still not good for snow) plus gloves and a hat and scarf and whatever-else-the-others-have-on only not as good.

Why did I get this?

Oh. Right. We were getting a bit low on gil, and couldn't get another set of _really warm_ stuff. I, being the wonderful, kind person I was, offered to take the next, cheapest warm stuff they could provide. Shoulda said _snowproof_ as well. (And I managed to convince them, too. They were so distracted by the missing Aeris that they didn't go and get all super worried about _my health_.

I'm getting tired now. How long have we been sludging through this snow? I mean, sure, snow can be really great, but it's not so great when it goes up to your knees sometimes. (Okay, most of the time.) My legs are really cold, y'know? I'm using them the most, but they're not warming up with my blood goin' through and stuff. Warm up, legs! Warm up!

"Why the hell is snow so _cold?_" I whined. Ya know what, Cid? I'm gonna keep pissin' you off, 'kay? Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

"The air's cold too!"

"Why do we have to go through all this snow? It's a lot of snow, y'know!" Hey, I rhymed! "And..." I started rummaging through my backpack. My back's gettin' a bit colder now. "Why don't I have any materia?"

Man could I go for some Fire right now. And _still_ everyone's ignoring me again. And I thought I'd have bugged Vinnie enough to say something. Y'know what? I don't think it'll take much longer to get to this town in an ice-block. I'll just deal with the friggin' cold.

Okay, now I'm really tired. How long has it been _now?_ "Are we there yet?" No? Fine. Don't answer me. Again. I think I'll just stay at the back. I'm getting so tired I don't think I can keep up in the middle anymore. But being tired doesn't mean I don't have any energy left in me! (I just need to slow down to keep my energy up.) I have just enough to keep buggin Cid and Barret and Vinnie. Maybe Cloud too. (I think he's gonna turn into Broody McBroodbrooder soon. Don't you?)

I mean, Vinnie's always brooding, you know? He's brooding over some dead chick, whatshername, Lucrecia? And he was like totally _fascinated_ by her some, I dunno, 30 years was it? And look! Thirty years later and he's still brooding about her! It's not his fault she went to that Hobo guy! (Or was it Homo? Whatever.)

"Are we theeeeere yet?" Hey, hey, hey Broody McBroodbrooder! Look at me! I'm askin' YOU buddy! Fine. Keep ignoring me and keep sulking/moping/brooding over that dead chick of yours. You happy now? I'm leavin' you alone.

Hmm... Maybe he has a Fire materia somewhere? Let's see... Cure, Ice, Thunder, Steal, and... Chocobo Lure? No... I can't see it. Wait! There's a red one! Lessee... Oooh! Odin! (Why doesn't he have a Fire materia, darnit!) I should remember this for later, nyuk nyuk nyuk.

It's so cold! So coldcoldcoldCOLD! I betcha everyone's all warm'n toasty in their big poofy snowproof jackets. I betcha Vinnie doesn't even need that raggedy ol' cape of his. It'd probably keep me all warm'n totally not freezing my ass off back here and- WOAH. Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Everyone went all spinny fer like a second there.

Oh yeah! Red (I call him Red even though we all know his name's like, Nanaki which is kinda funky) has fire on his tail! Maybe that'll keep me warm!

... Nevermind. He's too far up ahead, darnit.

Okay. Self mantra. I am not cold. I am not cold. I am not cold. I am not cold. I am not cold. _Holy hell I'm cold._ I'm so totally not cold. Really.

I'm not gonna collapse, nosirree. Everything's just turning dark because it's becoming night, that's all. And Aeris isn't dead, she's right over there by Cloud and Teef... No wait. Now she's everywhere. Like, really, everywhere. Hell there's even a mini-Aeris sitting on top of Chocobo-butt, riding on his head like it was a _real_ chocobo! And there's a whole bunch'a Aerises all tangled up in Vinnie's long long long really long (really pretty and probably really soft too) hair. It's kinda funny, actually. They're all havin' fun there. Kinda cute actually, hehehe.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. How long has it been since I spoke? Come on, Yuffster! Open your mouth and piss that chain smoker off! You can do it! You can do it! Why isn't anything coming out of my mouth? Arg...

I'm not cold, I'm not cold, I'm not cold, I'm really not cold. Oh, hey Aeris. How do you like the snow? Cold, isn't it? I know.

Whoa. When was the snow at my thighs? Oh. I fell down. Woops. Get up, Yuffie! You're not cold! You're totally, uberly, extremely, totallyreallyabsolutely NOT cold! I'm not cold. I'm... really not... cold at all...

Hello Snow. Snow, meet Yuffie's face. My face, meet Snow. Are we friends now? Can you make me warmer and make Aeris stop spinning everywhere? No? You're an asshole, Snow, did you know that? A big, fat, cold asshole. Even though you're fun to play with. I'm not cold. I'm so totally not cold. Take that, Snow! In your face! You can't make ME freeze to death, I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! The White Rose of Wutai! And everything is tooooootally not going black. Nossirree, nope. Okay, so maybe it is. Fine. I admit it. It's cold. It's... it's really cold...

"I'm... I'm not... not cold... at all..."

-

_AerisAerisAeris._

_DontgoAeris!_

_Don'tleaveus._

_Please._

_._

_"I'm sorry, Yuffie."_

_Aeris!_

_"I'm sorry I had to leave you all."_

_We don't want you to leave! Come back, Aeris!_

_"I can't come back, Yuffie, I'm so sorry."_

_You could have come back. If only I stopped Sephiroth then._

_"I'm so sorry, Yuffie. Please don't blame yourself for this."_

_ImissyousomuchAerispleasedon'tleaveusforever._

_Aeris smiled. "I can't leave you forever, Yuffie. I can't leave any of you."_

_Then why aren't you here with us? Why aren't you here so everyone's not like BroodyMcBroodbrooder?_

_"I had to leave you, but this is not forever. I'm still in your heart, Yuffie." Aeris smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. I have to go right now."_

_NoAerisdon'tleavemeagain!_

_"I'll be watching over you all. And thank you, Yuffie. For the flowers. The seeds have spread and they're beginning to grow very well."_

"_Aeris._"

"So you're awake."

Whoa. Soft. Comfy. Super snuggly. Best. Upright. Bed. Ever. Minus the buckle-y things.

... Wait. Buckle-y things? What the hell is an upright bed?

"_Whoa!"_ Vinnie, are you that much of a pervert that you take advantage of me while I rest? I mean, sure, I may be irresistable, but that doesn't mean you can hug me all willynilly like that.

Well, maybe you can.

"Um... You mind letting go of me?" My face is not warm. It's totally not warm. It's not! Aw, he let go. He was supposed to hug me tighter. I'm cold now. But, I must live up to what I say! "Okay. So why am I here?" I thought I was having a great time with the snow. Can you hear my sarcasm?

"... You collapsed in the snow." He stated. "You weren't properly dressed... for the weather."

"Oh." Figures why I can't remember getting to a town. I knew I should have gotten something snowproof! Wait... My clothes! They're different! Vinnie, you didn't change me, did you? If you did, I'll call you a pervert forever! Pervert!

"... Tifa changed your clothes."

_Oh._ "Psychic brooding vampire." I muttered under my breath. Hey! No! Don't you DARE go up! Stay down! I said stay down! STAY DOWN!

Dammit, Vincent. You and your damned eyebrows.

Okayso. Let's ignore the brooding vampire for now and take a look at this room, shall we? There's a bed... which I wasn't on. There's a fireplace... where Vincent Brooding Valentine was molesting- ahem- _keeping me alive and warm_. There's a window... What the hell? The window's half covered by snow! So, Snow. You've come back to get me once again, huh? Well too bad! Vinnie Van Brooding Valentine is here to keep me safe! Or at least, while I was down. Probably not when I'm up, though. He knows I can kick ass when I'm up. But I think I may need just a teensy weensy bit of help against you, Snow. Evilevilevilsnow. EVIL.

Okay so this room is boring now. It's all wood and all brown. Nothing's wrong with that, it's just... very plain.

"So." I started. "Uh... How long have I been sleeping?" Probably a few hours. Nothing can keep the Great Ninja Yuffie down for long!

"... Three days." Oh. Well shit, I've been down who knows how long, so now I've kept everyone waiting.

"Well that's just greeeaaat! I've kept everyone waiting when we coulda just went straight ahead the whole time! Kind of a major bummer, you know?"

Okay, what am I saying wrong this time? Don't shake your head at me, Vincent Broodingtine!

"While you have been asleep, Cloud has been... practicing."

Practicing? "Practicing what, O Specific One?"

"... Snowboarding."

Three dots equals dotdotdot, which is Vincent's thing. My reaction is like, way more than that. It's like, _dotdotdotdotdot._ And more.

"_Snowboarding?_" I can just see the sparkles in my eyes in the reflection on his shiny claw.

... A face full of snow again? Ugh...

But _still!_ Snowboarding!

"You are not well enough to try yet."

"Spoilsport." Fine, Mr. Brooding Van Broodingtine. Since I can't do anything, I'll just use your shiny shiny claw as a mirror. I've got three days of bed hair (Okay, compared to your thirty years, three days ain't long.) and it needs combing. Or brushing. And washing. Guck. Is that dry _monster goo_ I see there? It better not be!

"Hey, why are my eyes red?" So like, I can understand that having not enough sleep will make your eyes red. I didn't think having too much sleep made them red (minus the fact that Vinnie's irises are like so totally super red and awesome). Besides, if it did, wouldn't my irises be red then? (Hey. Vinnie. Move. You've been sitting in that same position the entire time. Plus, you're right in front of the fire.)

Three dots from the ever-so-talkative one.

Three dots in return. Take that!

"... You've been crying."

Okay. Here's my _dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot_s now. I wipe my face, and it's like ohmygawd they're still wet. (I was crying in my sleep?)

"It's probably the melted snow! I haven't cried, that's impossible! I, Yuffie, the White Rose of Wutai, do not cry!" (Well, maybe for Aeris...)

Okay, Vincent. Keep your damned eyebrows down. I mean it. Are they alive? Or does Galian find levers inside your head and move them up and down? Is that how they work? Cause I can totally see him doing that, you know?

... Okay, so the snow can't stay on my face for three days. Shut up, Vincent's eyebrows. Stop mocking me all the time.

"Y'know Vinnie, you should speak up instead of let your eyebrows do it for you. See! You're doing it again!" That's right. Let's distract him with his eyebrows so he forgets the fact that I 'cried' about Aeris. But then again, that never works. Crap. _Crapcrapcrap._ Am I crying again? _Crap,_ I am! Okay, sleeves! Do your trick! Dry my eyes really fast so Vinnie Van Valenbrood doesn't notice! Stop, salty water! _Stop!_ Gack! Look away, Vincent! I'm not crying! I'm not crying! Especially about Aeris! I promised I'd be strong for her!

"Yuffie..." No, Vinnie. It's not your fault. That's what you're thinking, isn't it? You think everything's your fault. Well it's not. Even though we maybe could have saved Aeris if we were up there and if we knew that silver-haired freak was going to come down and _-_

Oomph. Woah Vinnie. You're giving me a hug? Like _whoa._ (But it's still not your fault.)

"It's okay to cry." No, no it's not. It's absolutely not. Crying means I'm weak. Crying means I've acknowledged the fact that Aeris is gone and that freak killed her. Crying means I remember that day when my mother was _murdered_ the exact same way Aeris was. Crying now means this is the first time I've cried since I was a child. So no, Vincent. It's not okay to cry, and I'll shake my head against your cloak and ignore the buckle-y things.

But now I'm crying harder. I'm bawling, sobbing, _whatever else you can think of when someone cries really hard._

And when I'm finished, I realize that maybe it's not so hard to cry after all. Especially when you have a brooding vampire who really-isn't-a-vampire-but-does-brood-about-that-dead-chick there with you.

And now that I'm done, I realize I don't want to leave you because you're so very warm (and there's something in me that doesn't want to leave you either.)

So without further ado, I get up, snatch the blanket from the bed, and sit back in his lap.

And when he raises his eyebrows, even though I can't see them 'cause I bury my face in his chest, I shrug, I squeeze him tighter, and I mutter, "You're warm."

... _Dude._ He just _laughed._

* * *

Yay! It's finished! I've had this in my mind for a while now, and I apologize to all other Yuffentine writers if I have unconsciously used something you've written in your stories. (You should be flattered, really.)

Anyways, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I'd love it if you gave me a review (and put it in your favourites)! -hinthint-


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